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All About Guns Cops

Commentary: ‘No Evidence’ That Gun Buyback Programs Reduce Gun Violence, New Economic Study Finds

handgun with ammo

by Jonathan Miltimore

 

Shortly before Christmas in 2018, a woman named Darlene voluntarily turned in a 9mm pistol to the Baltimore Police Department. It was just one of about 500 firearms the department collected that day as part of the city’s gun buyback program, which paid citizens somewhere between $25 and $500 in exchange for their firearms and high-capacity magazines.

Darlene, however, had a confession. She was turning in her 9mm, she told a local news reporter, so she could “upgrade to a better weapon.”

Like what? the reporter asked.

“I don’t know,” Darlene said. “I haven’t quite decided.”

 

Supporters of gun buybacks, such as Baltimore’s mayor and police chief, say the program is an effective way to reduce violent crime.

“Our point here is, there are guns on the streets of our city,” said then Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh. “We are signaling folks out there, we don’t care if it’s grandpa’s gun or your gun, we want it.”

Darlene’s story, however, was used as ammunition by skeptics of gun buybacks to show the programs are ineffective and a waste of taxpayer resources. Skeptics of gun buybacks have long argued that stacks of rifles, pistols, and gun magazines “look impressive when they’re displayed at news conferences,” but argue they do little to reduce gun violence.

“Researchers who have evaluated gun control strategies say buybacks—despite their popularity—are among the least effective ways to reduce gun violence,” USA Today reported back in 2013.

A newly released academic study reinforces the claim that gun buybacks don’t reduce gun violence.

Last week the National Bureau of Economic Research published a paper titled “Have US Gun Buyback Programs Misfired?”

The paper, which was authored by economists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, San Diego State University, and Montana State University, differed from previous studies in that it didn’t study a single city’s Gun Buyback Program (GBP), but an array of them.

Researchers said they identified 339 GBPs across 277 cities, examining public records to determine the number of firearms sold in each. They concluded the data is clear: gun buybacks do not reduce gun crime.

“Using data from the National Incident Based Reporting System, we find no evidence that GBPs reduce gun crime,” the researchers said. “Using data from the National Vital Statistics System, we also find no evidence that GBPs reduce suicides or homicides where a firearm was involved.”

The NBER paper dovetails with other studies that focused specifically on Seattle, Buffalo, and Milwaukee, which found buyback programs were ineffective but popular with the public.

“I think the evidence still suggests that if the goal is to prevent intentional homicide, the gun buybacks are not likely to achieve that objective,” Michael S. Scott, director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing and a clinical professor at Arizona State University, told The Democrat and Chronicle in 2016.

Some may argue that there is little harm in gun buybacks even if they don’t work, since they are voluntary. Yet this ignores the fact that gun buybacks are quite costly.

The first ever US gun buyback occurred in Baltimore in 1974. Citizens were paid $50 ($259 in 2019 dollars) for any firearms they turned in, researchers said, and the city collected some 13,500 firearms. The cost? Some $660,000.

This is just one city. Costs are substantially larger at the national level. Australia’s massive 1996 gun buyback program, for example, collected 640,000 firearms, costing taxpayers some $230 million. A buyback on that scale in the US would involve the collection of about 78.6 million firearms, researchers said. The cost would likely be tens of billions of dollars.

In the US, however, gun buybacks tend to occur at the local level. Nevertheless, costs can run surprisingly high, since there is little incentive to control spending. The lack of spending oversight has at times manifested itself in comical ways.

In 2019, for example, YouTuber Royal Nonesuch was able to make $300 by selling several “pipe guns” he made out of scrap—he described them as “the crappiest guns” he ever made— to the state of Missouri. Officials at the event didn’t seem to care or even notice, evidenced by the fact that the individual who paid Nonesuch never bothered to inspect the firearms.

 

Economist Daniel Mitchell offered an anecdote that is perhaps even more amusing. During Baltimore’s 2018 gun buyback, Mitchell noticed the city was offering people $25 for every “high-capacity” magazine they turned in.

The problem?

A quick online search revealed that some magazines could be purchased for between $11-$13. This meant a clever entrepreneur could have purchased a car full of magazines and turned them into the city to make a quick, hefty profit at the expense of taxpayers (and to the benefit of gun manufacturers).

If a preponderance of evidence shows gun buybacks are ineffective and costly, it invites an important question: why are they so popular with local governments?

The answer can be found in public choice theory, an economic concept pioneered by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan that essentially says government officials make decisions based on self-interest just like everyone else.

Gun buybacks may not be good policy, but it turns out they are great politics—especially in cities plagued by gun violence.

For starters, an abundance of research tends to agree that buybacks are relatively popular with the public. The policies have the appearance of being “voluntary” (except, of course, for the wealth that was taxed to make the purchase), and are easier to pass and less controversial than gun control laws. This allows politicians and bureaucrats to show they are “doing something” to reduce gun violence in cities. Meanwhile, the only real costs of gun buybacks—tax revenues essentially wasted—are widely dispersed, which, as F.A. Hayek once pointed out, makes them “difficult to see.”

The economist Milton Friedman famously stated that “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” But people often do judge policies by their intentions (or their appearances)—which is no doubt why Friedman so often made this point.

The popularity of gun buybacks is yet another instance in the government arena of good intentions overshadowing dismal results.

– – –

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune.

 

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All About Guns California Cops

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout by Luke C

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
On Friday, February 28th, 1997 the Los Angeles Police Department would face one of the most dangerous criminal acts in its history – The North Hollywood Bank Shootout. On that Friday morning, after months of planning two armed bank robbers entered and robbed the North Hollywood Bank of America branch in California. The ensuing shootout between the heavily armed bank robbers and LAPD would go down in history as one of the largest gun battles in United States history. Today we’ll breakdown the facts leading up to and throughout the infamous North Hollywood Bank Shootout.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to sit in judgment of any party that was involved in this incident. The purpose of this article is to take the facts which have been presented to the public to show readers a clinical, unbiased and truthful look at an unfortunate chain of events.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

BEST-LAID PLANS

The robbers – Larry Eugene Phillips Jr. and Decebal Ștefan Emilian Mătăsăreanu – were familiar with firearms and prepared for the bank robbery by heavily arming and armoring themselves. Included in their arsenal were illegally modified rifles including two Norinco Type 56 S rifles, one Norinco Type 56 S-1 rifle and a Bushmaster XM15-ES2 Dissipator all of which were modified to be able to fire fully automatic. The robbers were also armed with an H&K Model 91 .308 rifle.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

The HK-91 Rifle used by Phillips during the robbery (note the destroyed lower receiver and magazine)

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

An illegally modified XM15 used by the robbers to fire fully-automatic – Beta mag attached

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Norinco Type-56 Sporter modified to fire full-auto by the robbers – an attached Romanian 75 round drum magazine.

Phillips and Mătăsăreanu also armored themselves with varying degrees of body armor. Mătăsăreanu wore a Type IIIA bulletproof vest with a trauma plate to protect vital organs while Phillips was found to have worn more than 40 lbs of equipment including his armor. Phillips wore a Type IIIA vest which included a groin guard and he supplemented this with several pieces of homebrewed body armor salvaged from pieces of other vests. All together Phillips was nearly covered from head to toe in body armor.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout: Recreation of Phillips (left) and Mătăsăreanu on the day of the robbery

In addition to their armament, both robbers made an extensive reconnaissance of the Bank located at 6600 Laurel Canyon Boulevard – this reconnaissance included finding the exact person they needed to gain access to the bank’s vault which was their main target. The robbers also made use of police scanners to determine the estimated response time and included watches sewn onto the back of their gloves to monitor their timing.

THE ROBBERY

At 9:17am the two robbers arrived at the bank and set their watch alarms for 8 minutes. As the two made their way into the bank they were spotted by two patrolling officers. Loren Farrel and Martin Perello were on patrol and driving down Laurel Canyon when they spotted the robbers. Perello immediately called in the possible 211 – the code for robbery.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

After entering the bank the robbers proceeded to harass both customers and bank employees. Mătăsăreanu opened fire into the bank’s ceiling declaring “This is a F*cking holdup!” As Phillips secured the main bank lobby Mătăsăreanu proceeded to track down the bank’s assistant manager John Viligrana.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

The metal door jam was shot along with the bullet-resistant glass leading to the tellers and bank vault.

Viligrana was located inside the tellers where the vault door was. To gain access to this area, Mătăsăreanu shot through the 1/4″ thick bullet-resistant polycarbonate and acrylic composite panels with his converted Norinco Type 56 Sporter rifle. The short burst destroyed the panels and riddled the striker plate with bullet holes.
John Villigrana encountered Phillips after he blasted the door open and was immediately met with demands to “Get the money or we kill you.” Even though Villigrana immediately complied with the demands he was still struck in the back of the head with the wire-frame stock of Phillip’s rifle.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Upon entering the vault Villigrana began filling Mătăsăreanu’s bags with cash. However, due to a recent change in delivery times and practices, the bank had not yet received its bulk delivery and the amount of cash inside was not what the robbers had expected (roughly $750,000). Assistant Manager Villigrana recalls that Mătăsăreanu became visibly and audibly upset with this revelation. In a display of rage, Mătăsăreanu unloaded a full 75-round drum into one of the vault’s cash lockers (Burgher Box).

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

After this incident, Villigrana had finished loading up the robber’s bag with a total of $303,305 which included 3 dye packs that would all detonate as the robbers were leaving the building. With their 8 minutes up the robbers marshaled the terrified customers into the bank vault and at that point, Phillips exited the Northwest door of the building while Mătăsăreanu remained inside for another 4 minutes – it is still unknown what he did inside the bank during this time.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

THE SHOOTOUT

During the bank robbery, LAPD officers had managed to surround the building setting up patrol cars along Laurel Canyon Boulevard as well as the intersecting streets surrounding the bank. Officers began to arrive only minutes after the initial two-eleven call was made by Officer Perello.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips as he opened up with his initial barrage of fire at the LAPD

As Phillips exited the building he immediately encountered LAPD officers. Phillips opened fire with the first of what would eventually be 1,100 rounds reportedly fired by the robbers during the ongoing battle. LAPD Sgt. Haynes along with 3 other officers were the first targets of Phillips and the first barrage of full-auto fire riddled the police cruiser with bullet holes as the officers took cover. Phillips continued to pursue the officers and present civilians and even fired on the police helicopter AIR-8 which had arrived just seconds before Phillips exited the bank.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Although it may not seem like it the distances that the gunmen were engaging the officers at put officers armed with pistols at a significant disadvantage.

Phillips continued to fire till he emptied his 75-round drum and then proceeded to retreat to where he had exited the bank. Officers used this opportunity to return fire with their Beretta 92F 9mm pistols. Some other officers had S&W Model 15 revolvers and others brought Ithaca Model 37 shotguns to combat the robbers. Shortly after reloading, Phillips stepped out again and in a single 128-degree arc of fire, he wounded three police officers and one civilian.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips was initially shot by officer James Zboravan. Zboravan used his Ithica Model 37 and two blasts of buckshot to hit Phillips from the rear with 9 total projectiles but only one managed to injure Phillips by striking his right buttock which was unprotected by armor. Phillips turned to engage the officer and those around him and eventually wounded officer Zboravan with one round striking his lower back and other striking his hip and exiting through his thigh.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

ATTEMPTED ESCAPE – PHILLIPS

This portion of the battle would go on between officers and Phillips until he decided to return to the bank Phillips may have been struck several times by both LAPD officers and detectives with 9mm rounds as several officers engaged him from multiple angles. After discarding several empty ammunition drums Phillips and Mătăsăreanu exited the bank both carrying the large money bag.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
LAPD SWAT arrived 18 minutes after the shooting had begun and were much better armed than the patrol officers. LAPD SWAT brought AR-15 rifles to bear and commandeered a nearby armored truck to extract the wounded civilians and officers from the area.

LAPD officers and SWAT team members use a commandeered armored transport to rescue a wounded man, under fire from a robber at the Bank of America across the street. (Gene Blevins/Los Angeles Daily News)

As Mătăsăreanu and Phillips exited the bank and began to flee, Mătăsăreanu was shot twice in the right buttock and once in the left forearm which forced him to drop the bag of money which had been ruined by the detonation of the dye packs.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

The glove from the right hand of Phillips

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Autopsy report showing Phillips right hand which was shot

Mătăsăreanu then proceeded to enter their getaway vehicle and start the engine while Phillips retrieved the HK-91 from the trunk and continued firing at officers by walking along with the car as it moved. The HK-91 was struck on the receiver and magazine forcing Phillips to abandon the rifle. Phillips was simultaneously struck in the shoulder by officers.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips quickly picked up a second Type 56 rifle and exited the parking lot and onto the street where Mătăsăreanu had driven the getaway vehicle. It is at this point that he continued to fire at police until his rifle jammed at which point he drew his Beretta 92FS and continued firing at police. Phillips was shot in the right hand which caused him to drop his pistol. After retrieving the pistol, Phillips chose to end his life with it while officers simultaneously shot him several times while the pistol was under his chin.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Phillips firing his Beretta 92FS at police shortly before his death.

ATTEMPTED ESCAPE – MĂTĂSĂREANU

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
Mătăsăreanu continued down the street until the original getaway car was disabled by having two of its tires shot out. He attempted to steal a Jeep Gladiator by shooting at its driver. The driver ran away but not before activating the electrical kill switch which disabled the vehicle. As this was happening SWAT arrived and engaged Mătăsăreanu who had taken cover behind the original getaway car.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
For almost the next two and a half minutes, there was a stream of near uninterrupted gunfire between the officers and Mătăsăreanu. The bank robber survived a direct “double-tap” to his vest and continued to fire at officers after catching his breath. Eventually, a swat officer chose to fire underneath the vehicles at Mătăsăreanu’s unprotected lower body which eventually wounded the bank robber and caused him to surrender, Mătăsăreanu put his hands up to indicate this.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

Just seconds after his surrender, police officers rushed to pin the man down and cuff him. Officers questioned him about his own name and if there were any other suspects and Mătăsăreanu reportedly retorted with a vulgar “F*ck you! Shoot me in the head!”

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A photo of the “double-tap” shot sustained to Mătăsăreanu’s vest during the final exchange of gunfire.

Ambulance personnel, following standard procedure, refused to enter “the hot zone” where Mătăsăreanu was as he was still considered dangerous and there were reports that a third gunman might be on the loose. EMTs were not allowed to reach the scene until almost 70 minutes later after police radioed for an ambulance and Mătăsăreanu died at the scene from excessive blood loss. In total, he was shot over 20 times in the legs although the two fatal shots were from his left thigh.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

AFTERMATH – CONCLUSION

In just under 45 minutes, over 300 law enforcement officers had responded to the city-wide TAC alert. At that same time, over 1,100 rounds of various ammunition had been fired by just the robbers with an additional estimated 650 rounds fired by police. Miraculously the only two deaths were those of the two perpetrators. In total 11 police officers were wounded and 6 civilians were wounded during the 44-minute robbery.

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout

This single incident in which two heavily armed and highly motivated men chose to rob a bank at high risk proved to be one of the motivating factors to standard patrol officers being armed with more lethal weapons. If anything this incident proves just how ineffective standard patrol weapons (pistols and shotguns) can be against those with heavier firepower.
This thought process led to the Department of Defense giving 600 surplus M-16 rifles to the LAPD which were then issued to each patrol sergeant. Today weapons like these can be considered “standard issue” by many police departments.
A Breakdown of the Infamous 1997 North Hollywood Bank Shootout
I hope that this brief breakdown of the facts has been informative and enjoyable to read. The story of the North Hollywood Bank shootout has many complex and intricate details, many of which I was not able to include for brevity’s sake. If you have questions many of the links in the article have a bounty of information that I was unable to include in the article. As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment down below.
Photo Credits: CNN, National Geographic, Adrian Martinez, L. Mindham, LAPD Crime Scene Photos

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" California Cops

California May Soften Gun Crime Laws, Citing Impact On People Of Color By Jeffrey Cawood

BERKELEY, MISSOURI - DECEMBER 24: In this handout provided by the St. Louis County Police Department, a handgun is pictured that was recovered following the officer involved shooting at the Mobil on the Run gas station on December 24, 2014 in Berkeley, Missouri.

A California state assembly committee gave its stamp of approval on April 27 to legislation that would significantly soften sentences for people convicted of some firearm offenses, with proponents saying laws against using guns in the commission of crimes disproportionately affect people of color.

The Assembly Public Safety Committee voted 6-2 to approve the Anti-Racism Sentencing Reform Act, though the proposal still has several hurdles to clear before becoming law.

Assemblyman Alex Lee’s office said he agreed to co-sponsor the bill “to correct decades of harm done to communities of color.” Staffers recently created a “fact sheet” that argues imposing stiffer sentencing laws added on to the charge of an underlying offense drives up incarceration rates, crowds prisons, and serves as “a legal monument to racism.” 

“If a gun is used during a violent felony offense – such as a robbery – California’s ‘10-20-Life’ gun enhancement applies,” it said. “A 10-year enhancement is available for any use of a gun, which is increased to 20 years if the gun is discharged, and to 25-to-life if great bodily injury or death occurs.”

AB 1509, as the bill is known, would eliminate the use of most gun enhancements and significantly reduce the others, modifying them from 10-20-life to 1-2-3 years.

“In essence, the bill decriminalizes the use of a firearm in California for the most severe, most violent felonies,” Siddall told The Daily Wire. “What this bill would do is encourage violent criminals to use guns during their crime because the penalty is so insignificant.”

Its passage would be retroactive, meaning some prisoners currently incarcerated on firearm enhancement charges could be released. However, Lee’s office said the bill limits retroactivity based on the crime, and not everyone would be eligible for resentencing.

According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, approximately 40,000 inmates in custody, or about 40% of the prison population, have a firearm enhancement attached to their sentences.

Lee, a 25-year-old progressive Democrat from San Jose, describes himself as “the first Gen Z, youngest Asian American, and first bisexual state legislator in California history.” He was living with his mother last November when he beat his Republican opponent in a landslide. Lee was endorsed by Bernie Sanders and worked part-time for an app-based delivery service to generate income during the campaign. His priorities emphasized “fighting for the marginalized” but did not mention criminal justice reform.

 

Lee introduced AB 1509 in February. Four fellow Democrats signed on as co-authors, including  Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo (Los Angeles), Ash Kalra (San Jose), Mark Stone (Monterey Bay), and Sen. Scott Weiner (San Francisco).

During the committee meeting last week, Lee thanked “the over 370 incarcerated individuals who have written in support.”

Here is a look at four advocacy groups and co-sponsors that, according to Lee’s office, played an extensive role in drafting AB 1509 and remain partners in considering any amendments.

Initiate Justice

According to its co-founders, Initiate Justice was established “to activate the political power of people in prison, formerly incarcerated people, and their loved ones.” The organization claims more than 19,000 members inside California state prisons, including more than 150 organizers mobilizing inmates to change laws. Initiate Justice also trains organizers on the outside to “build our collective power and make our presence felt with legislators” through its Institute of Impacted Leaders initiative.

 

The group’s website highlights “prison abolition” as a featured project and has received at least $750,000 from two San Francisco-based grantmakers: the Libra Foundation and Rosenberg Foundation.

Taina Vargas-Edmond, Initiate Justice’s co-founder and executive director, was the executive chair of a committee that pushed a successful statewide ballot measure last year that restored voting rights to felons who have completed their prison terms. Initiate Justice was the lead organization on the Yes on 17 campaign and mobilized outside organizers on parole to direct communication efforts. The drive was also supported by the other activist groups working with Lee to reduce gun crimes punishment.

“The current approach of piling enhancements on top of convictions is an antiquated practice that needs to be rooted out from the core of California’s criminal legal system,” said Vargas-Edmond, who describes herself as an abolitionist and intersectional feminist.

Re:Store Justice

Established inside San Quentin State Prison, Re:Store Justice was created “to re-imagine our justice system.” It works “to end life and extreme sentences by changing the way society and the carceral system responds to violence and harm.” The group promotes restorative justice education sessions within prisons, bringing together homicide victims’ families with people incarcerated for murder.

Executive Director Adnan Khan co-founded the organization while incarcerated at San Quentin. He describes sentencing enhancements as “racist” and “abusive.”

“Sentencing Black, Brown and people of color to 10 additional years, or 20 additional years, or life in prison in addition to the sentence is excessive and unreasonable. We have to undo mass incarceration and the abuse we’ve normalized,” said Khan. “We are grateful for Assemblymember Lee leading transformative change.”

The organization has publicized progressive organizing actions that seek to decarcerate and close California prisons.

 

LaNeisha Edwards, program director at Re:Store Justice, served as a member of Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón’s transition team and is part of his office’s Crime Victims Advisory Board.

Patty Quillin, the wife of Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings, sits on the board of directors. She was also a major donor to the Yes on 17 campaign and funded drives supporting Gascón’s candidacy during that same election cycle.

Essie Justice Group

Made up of women with incarcerated loved ones, the Essie Justice Group boasts about “advancing demands that would bring about a reality where prisons are abolished and systems of healing, accountability, and wellness are the norm.” The organization also pushes for the dismantling of policing.

“We are building a membership of fierce advocates for race and gender justice – including Black and Latinx women, formerly and currently incarcerated women, transgender women, and gender non-conforming people,” Essie’s website says.

 

The group has received more than $4 million in grants from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which, in turn, received significant funding from Quillin and Hastings.

Silicon Valley De-Bug

Silicon Valley De-Bug group runs a criminal justice community organizing program where families with loved ones facing incarceration try to impact the outcomes of their cases. They often assist public defenders and produce videos that aim to tell the court a fuller story of a defendant in the hopes of securing more lenient sentences.

 

Its Twitter account has referenced “our movement to decarcerate and abolish jails.”

The nonprofit has received financial support from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

“Gun enhancements add years to loved ones’ sentences, are often used as a plea bargaining tool, and have no real correlation to public safety,” the group said in a statement. “We’ve seen dozens of families bear the burden of excessive sentences that don’t lead to real rehabilitation.”

The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Born again Cynic! Cops Dear Grumpy Advice on Teaching in Today's Classroom

Today Class, The word for the day is Epiphany!

Life in the Backwoods: Gun Porn

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All About Guns Anti Civil Rights ideas & "Friends" Cops Fieldcraft

This could happen near your home so be careful out there! Video Shows BLM Protesters Trapping Motorists and Brandishing Guns, What Police Do Has People Talking By Bonchie

If people thought the aggression of Black Lives Matter couldn’t happen in a red state like Texas, they were wrong. A new, viral video shows BLM protesters blocking traffic and brandishing guns in an attempt to intimidate those trying to get through in Plano, TX.

As a note for accuracy about who these protesters actually are, multiple Black Lives Matter shirts are visible. The signs being held up also indicate their allegiances.

At one point, you can see one of the protesters point a gun at the man who is yelling at them to move out of the road. But it’s what the police do that really has people talking.

Instead of trying to clear the street, the officer just stands there and only gets involved to deal with the driver. While it’s obvious he’s trying to keep things from escalating, that’s no excuse to stand idly by when unlawful behavior is clearly happening.

In response to this video, I’ve seen several BLM supporters claim that the protesters have a right to be armed. That’s true, but pretending anything in that video is legal shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how open carry (or any carry of a firearm) works. One of the things that a firearms instructor will drill into you is that you can not instigate a confrontation and then finish it with a gun while claiming self-defense. In this case, you can’t block traffic, entrap people, and then threaten them with a firearm. You certainly can’t shoot anyone in that situation. Once you instigate a confrontation as the BLM protesters did, the legal hurdles to claim self-defense become massively high.

Further, I want to note that there is no situation in Texas where a protest can legally block a roadway. Even if this protest was originally permitted, it had reached the point of law-breaking by the time the camera started rolling. Police should have moved to clear the road to de-escalate the situation. Instead, nothing was done until motorists started to get into it with protesters. That’s a failure of the police to do their jobs, likely due to restrictions placed on them further up the food chain.

This kind of lawless mob behavior is not just limited to urban centers. Plano is an affluent, Dallas suburb. If local authorities don’t get control, things are going to get out of hand, and people are going to die.

 

 

 

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Some good Police Work

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All About Guns Cops Darwin would of approved of this!

Inmate Who Hid Gun In Vagina Gets 10 Years Weapon found 17 days after Missourian was jailed – I am pretty sure that it must of been very uncomfortable to do that1

APRIL 28–A Missouri woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to smuggling a loaded gun that was hidden in her vagina into a county jail, court records show.

During a Circuit Court hearing last week, Amy Wilhite, 39, copped to a felony indictment charging her with “delivery or concealment” of the weapon, a small .22 caliber revolver that was fully loaded with five rounds.

In a plea deal, Wilhite, seen at right, was sentenced to serve a decade in the custody of the Missouri Department Of Corrections. She is currently being held at the Women’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, a state intake facility.

Wilhite, who has previously done stretches in state prison, was arrested on February 14 on gun and narcotics charges and booked into the Boone County jail in Columbia.

An initial search of Wilhite by Columbia Police Department officers failed to locate the 4.6 ounce North American Arms revolver stashed in her body orifice. A “pat search” at the jail was followed by a strip search, neither of which detected the four-inch firearm (pictured at left).

Wilhite was in the county lockup for 17 days before jailers discovered the gun, which was wrapped in plastic among her possessions. In a probable cause statement, investigators alleged that Wilhite had “removed the firearm from her body and concealed it within her personal belongings.”

During questioning at the jail, Wilhite admitted possessing the firearm, but claimed “she was only holding it for another female detainee.” But fellow inmates in Wilhite’s housing unit “all stated Amy was in possession of the firearm,” an investigator reported.

In addition to copping to the gun smuggling charge, Wilhite pleaded guilty on April 19 to the felony drug and weapons counts for which she was originally arrested. She was ordered to serve five years on each conviction, with the sentences to run concurrently with the 10-year prison term.

As previously reported in these pages, women in Tennessee, Illinois, and Oklahoma have also been convicted of trying to enter a jail with a gun in their vagina. (2 pages)

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Commentary: Daunte Wright’s Death Is a Tragedy for Us All

Daunte Wright
by Scott McKay

 

We will never hear the last of these names. Eric Garner. Alton Sterling. Michael Brown. George Floyd. Rashad Brooks.

And now Daunte Wright.

We will never hear the last of them because there will always be more. And because certain people are invested in forcing us to hear about them.

But what they demand we hear isn’t the truth.

Is it a tragedy that Daunte Wright is dead? Of course it is. Should he have been shot dead on Sunday by a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer? Why, no – he shouldn’t have been.

We can get this out of the way very easily. The Brooklyn Center police department employed, it appears, a female cop who after 26 years on the force can’t tell the difference in a stressful situation between a taser and a Glock pistol. To call this a failure of hiring and training would be a rather generous statement.

There was something of a hue and cry over the firing of the city manager in that Minneapolis suburb because he called for the officer to be given due process, but the fact of the matter is that the most likely result of due process in the Daunte Wright case is firings up the chain of command anyway. The officer in question, Kim Potter, who was a former police union local president,  has already resigned. The police chief, Tim Gannon, has also resigned. Mike Elliott, the African American Democrat mayor of Brooklyn Center, seems pretty intent on throwing under the bus as many underlings as possible in order to save himself, but he probably ought to go, too.

Particularly after what the mob did to Brooklyn Center in response to the Daunte Wright shooting.

We could have an argument about “diversity hiring” here. We could also have an argument, as Reason.com was insistent on raising Monday, about the deadly stupidity of laws like the one Minnesota has criminalizing the hanging of air fresheners or other items from the rearview mirror of a car. Reason‘s Billy Binion pronounced Daunte Wright dead as a result of that idiotic statute.

He’s wrong. That law, disgracefully ridiculous though it might be, did not kill Daunte Wright.

Daunte Wright, or at least the life he led, killed Daunte Wright.

He wasn’t pulled over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror. He was pulled over because he had expired tags on his license plate. Then it was noticed that he had air fresheners hanging from his rear view.

Then it was noticed he had an outstanding warrant.

Then it was noticed he resisted arrest.

Then it was noticed he got back in his car and drove away from the police. Which he had done before, as it turned out; Wright had fled from officers in June. The circumstances from which that police encounter arose make for scintillating reading. He was reported to the police for waving a gun around, and when the cops showed up it turned out Wright didn’t have a permit for the gun.

He ran away. And he was cited and ordered to appear in court. He didn’t, which occasioned the warrant for his arrest.

That’s not all that appears on Wright’s record. There was the February arrest for aggravated robbery. There was a disorderly conduct charge arising from a 2019 incident. There was the guilty plea in late 2019 to possession and sale of marijuana. And there was an arrest warrant for armed robbery; Wright was accused of choke-holding a woman and threatening her at gunpoint, demanding $820 intended to pay her rent.

Daunte Wright dropped out of high school, then fathered a child out of wedlock he couldn’t support with minimum-wage jobs and petty drug dealing. He had borrowed $50 from his parents to take his car to a car wash and had his girlfriend in the car with him, with expired license tags. He was stopped by the police, resisted arrest, and then attempted to drive away — which raised the likelihood that he would expose his girlfriend to bodily harm. She was apparently injured when, as he bled out following being shot by Officer Potter, he crashed the car attempting a getaway.

In other words, this is someone who chose to be a penny-ante John Dillinger. He ended up with the full ante.

His parents are justifiably upset at his death. The loss of a child is one of the most heartbreaking events anyone could bear. Certainly our sympathies go out to them.

But Daunte Wright’s father called him “a great kid.” He said he was “a normal kid. He was never in serious trouble. He enjoyed spending time with his 2-year-old son. He loved his son.”

Great kids don’t fight with and then flee the cops. Great kids don’t bring the police around because they’re waving guns. Great kids aren’t arrested for aggravated robbery or for dealing drugs.

Or, in the community Daunte Wright came from, maybe they do. Maybe that’s great.

If so, that’s a lot bigger problem than the incompetence of the politicians and police in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

But that isn’t something you’ll hear much about, is it?

You aren’t even allowed to talk about the fact that this 20-year-old kid had already messed up his life and may have been well on his way to becoming a career criminal. Daunte Wright had perpetuated the cycle of out-of-wedlock childbirth, academic failure, the inability to learn and deploy a marketable skill, and escalating criminal behavior that so horrifically afflicts the black community in this country.

If Daunte Wright’s life was “great” and not substandard, then we will never be rid of these tragedies. And they’re all fundamentally the same — career criminal on the fringe of society, a failure in life, involved in drugs (if not high at the time; we’ll know later what the toxicology report shows), likely faced with prolonged jail time upon arrest and resisting arrest.

How do you prevent deaths like Daunte Wright’s? You try to prevent young men from living lives like Daunte Wright’s.

But you aren’t allowed to say that. Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris, both of whom had the opportunity to lead but instead chose to pander to the mob, would say it. Nor would Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz, another pandering Democrat responsible for more of his state’s destruction than perhaps all of his predecessors combined.

Wright’s family hired — of course! — the race-hustling attorney Ben Crump, who has made his entire livelihood trying cases like this in the media as the cities where they happen burn. Crump’s street-criminal clients, or more specifically their families, often pull nice settlements out of local governments despite weak evidence of actual malfeasance.

This case, owing to the Barney Fife nature of the gunplay involved, might be Ben Crump’s best yet. Which isn’t saying much.

So he was on the scene in Brooklyn Center almost before the body was cold.

“Daunte Wright’s life matters,” Crump said.

Well, of course it matters. It matters to Ben Crump. Daunte Wright will be a nice paycheck for him. And so will the next Daunte Wright, and the one after that. Before too long, Ben Crump will be able to buy a million-dollar house in Topanga Canyon near Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors’ fresh crib.

It isn’t a coincidence that nobody is interested in preventing lives like Daunte Wright’s but rather celebrating them. Daunte Wright’s funeral will be a lot bigger deal than David Dorn’s. There will be murals painted and stores burned and looted in his honor.

And then there will be a fat settlement. Daunte Wright will end up worth a whole lot more dead than he ever was alive.

So long as this tragic cycle can’t be called out for the horrific farce that it is, it will continue. But it can’t. And the next Daunte Wright will only keep the wheel turning around and around.

Categories
Cops Well I thought it was neat!

Picked a fight with the wrong type of Cops

https://youtu.be/GuOtGOujNME

Categories
Cops Good News for a change!

How to get fired as Chief of Police now a days

Minnesota Police Chief Resigns After Reporters’ Rebuke For Calling Riot A “Riot”

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, APR 13, 2021 – 02:25 PM

The Minnesota police officer who shot and killed a Black man Sunday during a traffic stop, along with the Police Chief who supervised her and the department, have both resigned Tuesday after nights of rioting and looting rocked their community in the wake of the state’s latest officer-involved shooting.

In her resignation letter, Office Kim Potter wrote this without referencing the shooting: “I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately.”

Shortly after the union announced Potter’s resignation, Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliott told reporters Chief Tim Gannon had also handed in his letter of resignation. The developments come after trouble broke out again during a second night of protests outside police headquarters in the Minneapolis suburb, CBS Minnesota reports.

Gannon’s decision to step down comes after he was drawn into the backlash after his handling of a press briefing this week, where he made the mistake of characterizing a riot as, well, a riot.

As Chief Gannon was suffering the blowback for what would become a career-ending error, Constitutional Lawyer Jonathan Turley shared some thoughts on the long-standing effort of many in the media to avoid referring to “rioting” in states like Minnesota and Oregon where violent demonstrations against police brutality have often spilled over into wanton violence.

Even with rioting and looting in full view in the last couple nights, the networks continued to refer to protests or at most “protests turn violent.” It appears that Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon never got the memo. As Turley recalls, the chief was scolded for calling the widespread rioting a “riot” by reporters.

Gannon was briefing reporters when he used the dreaded “R word.” He was asked by a reporter “What was your decision to issue a dispersal order while they were peacefully protesting in front of the police station?”

Gannon responded by saying “Just so that everybody’s clear, I was front and center at the protest, at the riot.”

That led to one person to object “Don’t do that” and another exclaiming “There was no riot.” The objections were reportedly made by the press members.

Gannon was not inclined to yield to the word police:

“It was. The officers that were putting themselves in harm’s way were being pelted with frozen cans of pop, they were being pelted with concrete blocks. And yes, we had our helmets on and we had other protection and gear but an officer was injured, hit in the head with a brick … so we had to make decisions. We had to disperse the crowd because we cannot allow our officers to be harmed.”

The rest is authored by Jonathan Turley, in a post entitled “Don’t do that”: Reporters tell police chief not to use the term “riot”.

The scene was reminiscent of last year when Craig Melvin, an MSNBC host and co-anchor of “Today,” tweeted a “guide” that the images “on the ground” are not to be described as rioting but rather “protests.”  He noted “This will guide our reporting in MN. ‘While the situation on the ground in Minneapolis is fluid, and there has been violence, it is most accurate at this time to describe what is happening there as ‘protests’ — not riots.’”

Conversely, there is a clear effort in the media to not refer to the Jan. 6th violence as a “riot” as opposed to “an insurrection.” The nomenclature reflects a tight control of how these stories are being framed by the media. The concern is that there is more effort in framing than reporting these stories by some in the media.

There is no question that the violence in Minnesota began as a protest and many engaged in peaceful demonstrations.  However, what occurred over the last two nights was clearly rioting as Chief Gannon stated.  The fact that people felt justified in telling the Chief to conform his own language to fit a narrative is astonishing.

The scolding of Gannon followed another reporter lashing out at Brooklyn Center City Manager Curt Boganey, before he was fired, because he thought it would be “inappropriate” to release the officer’s name during the news conference. A reporter immediately challenged him that :

“What was inappropriate was killing Daunte Wright… You are working harder to protect a killer cop than a victim of police murder.” 

Another reporter declared “racial profiling … happened in this situation. We are standing in solidarity and calling for the firing of this officer.”

There are growing calls for advocacy in journalism. This includes academics rejecting the very concept of objectivity in journalism in favor of open advocacy. Even Columbia Journalism Dean and New Yorker writer Steve Coll denounced how the First Amendment right to freedom of speech was being “weaponized” to protect disinformation. Censorship and advocacy journalism have become articles of faith for many in showing their commitment to racial and political reforms. The result however has been the steady decline in trust for the media.